Julia Malye (Paris, 1994) published her first book, Tocqueville's Bride, when she was only 15 years old. "I started writing because when I was little I was really afraid of forgetting things," she explains. She reread all those diaries from when she was 12 or 13, but they didn't evoke anything in her, they didn't transport her to the past. So she decided to write fiction. "I had another fear, of being locked in my mind, it was a feeling of claustrophobia, and writing allowed me to live other lives," she says. Now, with The Louisiana Girls, translated into Catalan by Josep Maria Pinto (Empúries/Salamandra), puts you in the shoes of a group of French girls who in 1720 set sail aboard The Whale. They had all come from the Salpêtrière, an orphanage and correctional facility with an infamous reputation where orphans, prostitutes, the sick, abortionists, daughters rejected by their families because they didn't fit in, or simply women with a rebellious streak lived. Their destination was America, specifically Louisiana, where settlers desperate for women awaited them. "They were like merchandise," Malye explains. "On the voyage I'm describing, they embarked with a group of Ursuline nuns; they were somewhat protected; on the previous voyage, many had died because they made the journey in terrible conditions and in chains," the author adds.